Week of November 12 – 15, 2019

Commission meetings and hearings

No open meetings or executive sessions were scheduled this week.

Enforcement

The Commission made public one closed case, as follows. For more information, see the case documents in the Enforcement Query System.

MUR 7582

COMPLAINANT: The Patriots Foundation
RESPONDENTS: Candide Group LLC (Candide); Aner Ben-Ami; Sen. Kamala Harris; Kamala Harris for Senate and Stephen J. Kaufman, in his official capacity as treasurer; Barbara Lee; Barbara Lee for Congress and Loraine Binion, in her official capacity as treasurer; Friends of Ben Jealous and Jason Barnard Small, as its treasurer; Andrew Gillum for Governor and Shelby Green, as its treasurer; and Nikki Fortunato Bas for Oakland City Council 20l8 and Chelsea Johnson, as its treasurer
SUBJECT: The complaint alleged that Candide and Ben-Ami violated the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (the Act), by making prohibited foreign national contributions to five federal, state, and local candidate committees and by making prohibited corporate contributions to the two federal candidate committees.
DISPOSITION: The Commission found no reason to believe that 1) Candide or Ben-Ami made the alleged prohibited contributions, 2) the federal, state, or local campaigns accepted prohibited foreign national contributions, and 3) the two federal campaigns accepted prohibited corporate and foreign national contributions and failed to report them because the record does not indicate that Candide or Ben-Ami made the alleged contributions.

Litigation

Level the Playing Field, et al. v. FEC (Case No. 19-5117) On November 12, the Commission on Presidential Debates filed a Corrected Amicus Curiae Brief in Support of the Defendant-Appellant and in Support of Affirmance in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Outreach

On November 14, Office of General Counsel Policy Attorney Joanna Waldstreicher made a presentation on recent developments in federal campaign finance law for the FBI Criminal Investigative Division’s Election Security Training in Cleveland, Ohio.

Public Disclosure

On November 13, the Commission’s Office of Inspector General made public an Independent Audit of the U.S. Federal Election Commission’s Compliance with the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014.

Upcoming Commission meetings

November 19: The Commission is scheduled to meet in executive session.

Upcoming reporting due dates

November 20: November Monthly reports are due. For more information on monthly reporting dates, refer to the 2019 Monthly Reporting page of the Commission website.

Upcoming educational programs

On November 20, the Commission will host two webinars: 1) Candidate 101: Getting Started webinar from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eastern; and 2) Party Activity in the Presidential Election Cycle from 3 p.m. to 4:30 Eastern.

On December 4, the Commission will host a webinar for nonconnected PACs.

Additional research materials

Federal Elections 2018: Election Results for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives is available. The data was compiled from the official vote totals published by state election offices. To order a printed copy, please contact the FEC’s Public Records Office at 800/424-9530 (option 2) or 202/694-1120, or send an email to pubrec@fec.gov.

FEC Notify: Want to be notified by email when campaign finance reports are received by the agency? Sign up here.

Additional research materials about the agency, campaign finance information, and election results are available through the Library section of the Commission website.

Printed copies of the 2019 edition of Title 11 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) are available. Contact the Commission's Information Division at (202) 694-1100 or (800) 424-9530 (press 6, when prompted) to order printed copies of the CFR at no charge. You may also email the Information Division to place an order at info@fec.gov.

The 2019 Combined Federal State Disclosure and Election Directory is available. This publication identifies the federal and state agencies responsible for the disclosure of campaign finances, lobbying, personal finances, public financing, candidates on the ballot, election results, spending on state initiatives and other financial filings. To order a printed copy, please contact the FEC’s Public Records Office at 800/424-9530 (option 2) or 202/694-1120, or send an email to pubrec@fec.gov.

The FEC Record is available as a continuously updated online news source.

Other election-related resources

Videos on protecting U.S. elections. The FBI’s Protected Voices initiative provides videos designed to help political campaigns protect themselves from foreign influence. The 2019 videos offer guidance on ransomware, business email compromise, supply chain, social media literacy, and foreign influence operations. Other videos, released in 2018, include cyber hygiene topics such as social engineering, patching, router hardening, and app and browser safety.

Join the FEC on Twitter and YouTube

Follow @FEC on Twitter to receive the latest information on agency updates, news releases, and weekly activity. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, FECTube: FECConnect on Demand, to watch instructional videos that have been designed to help candidates and committees comply with federal campaign finance laws. Note that the FEC is not currently available through other social media platforms at this time. The use of the agency’s logo, name, and likeness on other media has not been authorized by the FEC.